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Civil servants get new training sites

"Nowadays, we [civil servants] all work hard, attend extra training courses and try to provide better services to the public in order to keep up with the changes in society."

Yen Hui-ling, Ministry of Examination

Over the past five years since the establishment of the National Civil Service Institute (NCSI), the country's official training organization for civil servants, has been moving around in search of an environment conducive learning.

The search was finally declared over last year when the institute found a permanent home in Nankang, followed by the setting up of another one in Nantou County.

"After settling down in Nankang, we have heard some good news from staff members, who are starting families or buying houses in the neighborhood," said NCSI President Lee Sung-hsien (李嵩賢), expressing his happiness about finding the institute has fixed its residence.

Established in 1999, NCSI, affiliated with the Civil Service Protection and Training Commission of the Examination Yuan, is designed to provide orientation and basic training to newly-recruited civil servants, and equip senior employees with better administrative abilities.

"Civil servants carry the responsibility of delivering high quality and customer-friendly services to the public. Therefore, NCSI plays a critical role in bringing about an effective and efficient civil service system throughout the country," Examination Yuan President Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文) said.

"Many countries have put great efforts into improving their civil service training system. The UK, the US and France, for example, have all established Civil Service Colleges to integrate training with recruitment and employment. I think it's important for us to follow their steps," Yao told the press while touring around the institute in Nantou.

The Examination Yuan is planning on establishing a national civil college to integrate NCSI with all of the 52 local training agencies throughout Taiwan, in an attempt to integrate resources.

But before the plan can be carried out, both the Nankang and Nantou training sites represent the country's ongoing initiatives toward building an innovative resource center which provides civil servants with multi-faceted channels for lifelong learning.

Sharing the training strategy of NCSI, Lee said that the institute selected diversified methods, including lectures, workshops, adventure and assessment learning, to equip civil servants with creativity and a customer-oriented attitude.

"To keep up with the current trend, NCSI now offers E-learning and state-of-the-art learning courses in the training program. In addition, we also hold international civil service training workshops and send officials aboard for short-term training, in order to cultivate civil servants' world vision," he said.

With more than 3,000 people passing the entry-level, senior and special civil service exams each year and an average of 7,000 civil servants moving into higher positions, the two training sites provide a national level training institute with a capacity for 800 trainees.

To meet the needs of various organizations, NCSI offers different courses. The institute also designs specific programs for Aboriginal civil servants, equipping them with a broad knowledge of Aboriginal issues and laws, in order to deliver better services to the Aboriginal community.

Besides all the training designed to prepare civil servants with refined management and administrative skills, Yao said that what current civil servants need the most is efficiency and a friendly attitude.

"Civil servants in general are often criticized for being inefficient or treating customers impolitely. But facing sharp competition from private enterprises, we really need to focus our efforts on improving the quality of public service with good attitudes and efficiency," Yao said.

Yen Hui-ling (顏惠玲), Chief of the Secretary's Office at the Ministry of Examination, agreed that quality service is crucial in developing a better civil service.

"When I went through training at NCSI as a newly recruited civil servant, I learned all of the basic knowledge and administrative skills that I would need. But later I realized that it is one's attitude that matters if you want to do a good job. After all, we are all in the service business in some way," Yen told the Taipei Times.

According to last year's Examination Ministry statistics, the average age of graduates of the civil service examinations was 28 years, with the oldest being 60 years old. Even with a passing rate that is only 1.8 percent, tens of thousands take the civil service exams every year, striving for the stability of a civil service career. With the reduction of the number of civil servants and the privatization of government-operated organizations in recent years, however, the civil service is experiencing a period of reform.

"I think it's time to break the stereotype that civil servants have 9-to-5 jobs with little to do. Nowadays, we [civil servants] all work hard, attend extra training courses and try to provide better services to the public in order to keep up with the changes in society," Yen said.
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